The Dragon's Hypothesis
"Hah... hah..."
Amid the thick clouds of dust, Terra panted heavily. The artificial forest. The surroundings were littered with traces of battle.
Facing her was Bital, returned to his beastman form. He sat perched on a pile of crumbled rocks, rummaging through his pockets.
"What the hell do you guys plan to do with Neff?"
"......"
"Something about her being the vessel for the Demon King. Is that true? Is Neff really some kind of material to resurrect the Demon King?"
Instead of answering, Bital pulled out a cigarette and stuck it between his lips. A small spark flared at his fingertip, lighting the end.
"Fuu."
The long exhale of smoke scattered into the humid midsummer air.
"Who knows."
"What?"
"We don't know either."
"......Are you kidding me right now?"
It wasn't a joke. It had all started as nonsense Per and Mer spat out under pressure. Explaining it in detail would just be boring and pretentious.
Bital shook off the ash and said indifferently,
"The Monster Association hasn't found any concrete way to use Neff as the Demon King's vessel yet. It was just a possibility."
"Then......"
"But you lot gave us that certainty."
Bital's eyes pierced through Terra.
"Before we could even make a move, the Citadel assigned guards to Neff first. And not just anyone—a veteran magical girl like you."
"......"
"On the flip side, doesn't that mean the Citadel knows the method?"
Terra's eyes wavered. She had felt the Citadel's reaction was excessive too.
Not long ago, during the Rexon Games siege. Word got back to the Citadel that Neff had been marked as the Demon King's vessel.
Right after the report, the Citadel issued unprecedented measures. Magical girl guarding magical girl—something that had never happened before.
It was as if the world would end if Neff fell into the monsters' hands.
"Using Neff as a vessel is possible. Whether it's because she's a magical girl or because Neff herself is special, we don't know."
Bital stated it with firm conviction.
"The Citadel's overreaction—that's the surest proof."
Bital took another deep drag from his cigarette, then sighed as he looked around.
"By the way... don't you think this is barbaric?"
"What is?"
"This mess."
Bital gestured at the wrecked waterpark.
"My day job in human disguise is gardener. Planting trees, tending them, landscaping—that's my work."
"......You pay taxes, right?"
"Of course. I'm enrolled in the four major insurances and file my comprehensive income tax every year. I'm a model citizen with impeccable law-abiding spirit."
"You're insane..."
"But look at this place. It's a total disaster."
He seemed genuinely regretful.
"Think of how much sweat gardeners and laborers poured into creating this forest. All that effort, gone in a single fight. Truly barbaric."
"You're the one who wrecked it, you lunatic."
What an outrageous accusation. Who was calling whom barbaric?
But Bital shook his head shamelessly.
"It's all Neff's fault."
"Bullshit."
"Think about it. Isn't it weird?"
Bital blew out smoke and stared straight at Terra.
"Ever since Neff debuted, the world's clock has been ticking faster. Both reality and the underworld."
He pushed his point. Right before Neff's debut, South Korea had been peaceful. B-rank monsters were rare, and A-rank ones might as well have been unicorns.
Civilians and magical girls alike lounged in that peace. Handle the miscellaneous C-ranks casually, dump the headaches on Bella when needed.
The other veterans played celebrity, lived civilian lives, or sucked on their own honey in their own ways.
Then.
"Less than half a year since Neff debuted. How many A-rank monsters have shown up in that short time?"
Ten. For reference, only two A-rank monsters had appeared in the past five years.
"Doesn't it feel just like the old days?"
That era. The one every magical girl—no, everyone—knew.
"The era when magical girls and monsters fought for their lives every day, and the whole world was a cauldron of chaos."
"Don't make me laugh! You're the ones plotting to start the war again!"
"War? Perish the thought."
Bital caressed a nearby shattered landscaping stone.
"We have suppressants. That's why moderates like me exist in the Monster Association."
Bital Cruise. Among monsters, he was a rare pacifist—or realist.
Not the type to laugh and coexist with humans happily, but he didn't want pointless, bloody fights either. At least, that's how he saw himself.
That was why he avoided clashes despite being in the Monster Association and enjoyed life as a gardener.
But there was a more fundamental reason for his path of peace.
"The retired first-generation magical girls."
Terra's shoulders twitched at the words from Bital's mouth.
"Most of them probably couldn't withstand time. But... surely there are those still holding power, staying silent. Especially..."
Bital's gaze turned to the sky.
"Prima. What is she doing now?"
"......!"
"After the war ended, the power balance between magical girls and monsters collapsed. You girls gained overwhelming advantage. The first-generation magical girls were behind that, with Prima at the pinnacle."
That was why the Monster Association had to grovel.
They instinctively knew that if Prima got serious, they'd be swept away easily.
"So why aren't they moving? Why are they just watching?"
"That's...!"
Terra couldn't answer easily. She didn't know what Prima or the first-gen were up to either.
"Even if we concede they have reasons they can't act, doesn't the Citadel have a simpler, surer way?"
Bital smiled chillingly at Terra.
"Kill Neff."
"......What?"
"If Neff's the Demon King's vessel, just smash the vessel. Killing her stops the resurrection and the chaos."
"You think we're monsters like you? How could we kill an innocent junior—a person!"
"If killing's too squeamish, there are other ways. Seal her away, strip her magical girl status, seal her powers and let her live as a civilian."
Bital's voice grew lower.
"But the Citadel didn't. They let Neff roam free and ordered other magical girls to protect her. And the result?"
Bital spread his arms, indicating the waterpark's devastation.
"Monsters like us swarmed a waterpark full of thousands of civilians, lured by the bait called Neff. People are in danger, and this beautiful forest is ruined."
His pupils narrowed vertically.
"The Citadel's using civilian safety as bait to draw us in. Is this the way of righteous magical girls? Or..."
Bital incinerated the cigarette butt with a flame.
"Are they waiting for something through Neff too?"
"......"
"That's why I came here myself—to confirm it. What exactly you're waiting for."
Even knowing it was sophistry, Terra couldn't shake the unease rising in a corner of her heart.
"The more exposure and recognition magical girls get, the stronger they become. Cheers and admiration are mana sources."
"......That's basic common sense."
"But at the same time, we monsters grow stronger too. Fear and despair are forms of imagination."
That's why magical girls prioritize barriers in battle and evacuating civilians.
To prevent monsters from gorging on fear and surging in power.
"Yet in that process, one being grows freakishly strong."
Bital's finger pointed somewhere—toward Neff.
"I saw Neff take down the Octopus Prince. Barely, with Pluto's support, against a mere C-rank. That was just recently."
Bital smirked.
"But now? She's facing a B-rank solo. Win or lose, she's not running."
"That's because Neff has talent..."
"Talent? Maybe. But consider the timeline. She's only been debuted for a little over three months."
Bital's gaze fixed on Terra.
"Magical girl Terra. How were you at debut? Three months in—what were you doing?"
Three months post-debut. She had trembled catching E-rank monsters, a baggage trailing seniors.
B-rank? Unthinkable. Facing one would've been a miracle not to get slaughtered.
But Neff was holding her own against a B-rank now.
Absurd growth speed. Beyond talent—something else, Bital implied.
"No need to tell me, but one question. How did Neff debut?"
Terra blanked at the question.
How did she debut?
Thinking back, it was odd. The more she recalled, the more dissonance.
Usually, training camps or masco selection, then probation.
Neff appeared out of nowhere, invited to the group chat by Prima. Just "take care of the newbie."
At Terra's silence, Bital changed topics briefly.
"Remember Frost's meltdown on that YouXber stream recently?"
Of course. How could she forget?
Frost as a guest, roasted, smashed a rice bowl pot on air in rage—major controversy.
"Does that make sense?"
"......What do you mean?"
"Heroes risking lives to save people, publicly humiliated like clowns by civilians."
Cynicism laced Bital's voice.
"I couldn't treat my savior that way. Humans really forget favors."
"That's just those YouXbers being trash."
"No. The Citadel allowed it."
Bital asserted.
"Whether to inject tension into the lax magical girl scene or deliberately lower their status, who knows."
He rose slowly from his seat.
"Anyway... the Citadel and first-gen magical girls are, for some reason, pushing Neff to grow rapidly."
Like fattening livestock before slaughter.
"That's my conclusion."
As soon as he finished, mana boiled over from Bital's body.
Terra hurriedly steadied her stance.
Intense psychological warfare.
She quickly reined in her shaken mind.
Don't fall for a monster's tongue—that's magical girl basics. But too long off the front lines, she'd forgotten. And above all.
"So, your conclusion is to go easy?"
From the premise that he invaded a civilian-packed place first, it didn't hold.
"Not at all. I'm here to make this my grave."
Bital shook his head.
"Gardener's instinct, not monster. A harsh winter's coming to this world. The era's flow demands it."
He gazed sadly at his palm.
"Once war starts, the gardener in me vanishes, leaving only the monster. Better to go out before that."
Incomprehensible romanticism. But monsters had their stubborn convictions, like humans.
"Of course."
Bital's eyes changed in an instant. Chilling killing intent gripped Terra's heart.
"If you can't break me, I'll tear apart and kill every civilian here before leaving. Crush the precious lives you protect with my own hands."
"Hmph. Knew it. My fault for listening to a monster."
"I'm a monster—what's new? No intent to hand my neck to worthless scum without qualification or value."
Kugugugu!
Mana erupted from Bital like a storm, swirling wildly. The beastman soon reverted to dragon form.
"Human imagination is truly wondrous and convenient, isn't it?"
His voice rumbled deeply.
Bital stroked the scales on his arm.
"They say dragons are lords of magic. So humans firmly believe dragon scales resist magic."
Dragon Scale. Alongside dragon tongue, the cheat trait crowning dragons as fantasy's strongest race.
"And because of that belief, even your signature move couldn't scratch me."
Undeniable. Her signature move hit dead-on, yet Bital took no real damage.
"To pierce these scales, you'd need power transcending your signature move... something like that."
Bital referred to Mental Theme. Mental Theme—the pinnacle of mana curtains, projecting one's inner world onto reality. Terra knew the theory, but as a third-gen, she couldn't use it.
Third-gens lacked the raw tenacity of first or second gens. Bital saw through that.
As Bital raised his hand, mana formed into dragon claws following the motion.
"You're not enough. But..."
Then, Bital's gaze lifted to the sky. Terra followed.
A meteor streaked from the waterpark direction. Mana gleaming in iridescent hues shot straight at them.
"What if with her?"
An intrigued smile curved his lips.
"Time to test the hypothesis."
